We moved on today from Miriam Vale to Yeppoon just outside of Rockhampton. We had looked at staying at Rockhampton but the reviews for caravanners weren't great and Robb is still hoping to get a fishing charter and we thought he would have more hope of this at Yeppoon on the coast. We had searched ahead for somewhere to stay and because of the ANZAC weekend nearly everywhere was booked out. We found accommodation at the Poinciana Caravan Park at Cooee Bay so we took this and booked ourselves in for four nights. We drove through Rockhampton to get here and it looks to be a very pretty city, we will go back and have a good look around one day while here. We found our park easily and after signing in at the office we drove to our site and set up for our stay. The park is nothing special but that doesn't worry us too much as long as we have the necessities we are happy. The internet service is good so that is a definite plus. After we were set up I made a meatloaf for dinner and swept out the van from out last stay, we are on concrete this time so hopefully we can avoid the dirt inside the van. After lunch we drove to the Information Centre to pick up brochures to go through later on, the lady was quite helpful and we came away with what we thought was a good variety of information. From here we drove to Wreck Point Scenic Lookout which is just behind the park and the views from here were pretty good, we spent a few moments here before driving back to camp.
Our mission today was to look around Rockhampton which is only 34 minutes away from Yeppoon where we are staying. We didn't have much of a plan but I did want to stop at Kershaw Gardens on the way in as I had seen it when we were driving through to Yeppoon and it looked very pleasant, also someone had suggested it to me as a free camp site on one of the FB pages I follow. We found the gardens easily and drove into one of the many carparks and found ourselves at the children's water park and playground. There are lots of sheltered huts spotted around this area and they are all numbered, as there were a few parties in progress when we arrived I gathered you could book one of these areas for your child's important celebration. There was a map at the entrance to the park so we consulted this and saw we could either head off towards the wetlands or towards the waterfall. I chose the wetlands first and headed off in that direction. Unfortunately the wetlands are drylands at the moment but they were still quite pretty so I wandered for awhile before turning around and heading towards the waterfall area. I walked for quite a long time but had still not found the waterfalls so decided to head back to the car. I consulted my information brochure and we decided to drive through town and then onto the Riverside Precinct. As we were driving off towards town I noticed the waterfall area in Kershaw Gardens and it was about 3kms away from where we were, we would never have found it. Never mind, I had a quick look on the run.
Rockhampton is a very pretty city on the Fitzroy River, as it is ANZAC day, and there seemed to be some celebrations on the river, part of the road was blocked off. We drove around where we could having a look at the city before returning to the riverside where they were just dismantling the road blocks, we spoke to one of the men responsible for this and he directed us down another path that allowed us to access the heritage part of this area. There has obviously been a lot of work put in here to make this part of the river an attraction for families and couples, nice to see while loving the changes on the riverbanks you can still appreciate the heritage buildings over the road. From here we drove to the Botanic Gardens where they had just finished another ANZAC celebration. We weren't blocked here so we parked at the kiosk and walked up to the Cenotaph to have a look. The Cenotaph is quite imposing and takes up a large section of the park, there were many wreaths that had been laid here in remembrance of our fallen diggers. From the Cenotaph we walked to the Desert Garden and then over to the Japanese Garden. We visit many Botanic Gardens in our travels but this would be one of our favourites, maybe because it was ANZAC day and we were feeling a bit nostalgic, I don't know, but we certainly appreciated these gardens. We were both impressed with Rockhampton.
When we arrived home the next day I booked a trip for us to Great Keppel Island. Robb had been looking for a fishing charter but couldn't get one until Wednesday and we would be moving on then so he is happy to wait until we move further up the coast. We have booked to go on the ferry at 9.00am and to return at 2.00pm. We don't want to do much while there just have a quick look around, maybe a swim and lunch at the Hideaway before returning home. We arrived in plenty of time for the ferry and climbed aboard. We had a lovely chat to a couple from the Gold Coast who gave us lots of leads for parks on our travels. It is only a 35-40 minute trip to Keppel Island and the time went quickly, we landed on the beach and followed the rest of the crowd to The Hideaway Bar and Bistro. We hadn't had our morning coffee so we found a table and ordered our coffees which after waiting for so long went down very well. We walked from here around the island a bit before returning to the Hideaway at lunchtime and ordered a couple of beers while consulting the menu. It is not a very extensive menu and we decided to share our lunch and I went up to order before coming back and settling into people watching around the beach and restaurant. The weather was perfect and it was very pleasant sitting there with our drinks and our food. It didn't seem to be too long before we had to make our way down to the beach to meet the ferry. We walked back to where we had alighted from the ferry with the other people returning on this trip only to find that the tide had gone out so much they couldn't pull into where we thought they would and we had to walk back another kilometer or so through the water to meet up with our ferry. The crew were very pleasant and waited for the last of the people to turn up so all good. Before long we were back at port, we thanked the crew who had been very accommodating on the day and walked back to our car. It was a very good day.
This is our last day in Yeppoon and we have been staying on Cooee Bay and still haven't been into Yeppoon proper and because we just want an easy day we will explore the immediate area including Yeppoon and Emu Park. We had a bit of shopping to do first so we drove to the Cooee Bay shopping Centre which is just over the road from where we are staying. We visited the pharmacy first to fill our prescriptions and then to the supermarket for a few items we needed, we tend to just buy the few goods we need at the time rather than doing a big shop. It was only a small supermarket and didn't have what we wanted, we picked up a couple of items and then walked to the butcher and purchased meat for a couple of meals before walking to the bakery to purchase an apple pie because we have both been craving something sweet at night. We then drove to the closest Woolworths supermarket to get the items we couldn't get at the local supermarket. From here we drove down the main Yeppoon street to the beachfront and drove along here enjoying the views over the water. As is common now the area along the beach front has been done up a bit with parks, toilets and picnic areas, it is very pretty. There are hotels and cafes over the road to make this area more attractive to tourists.
From Yeppoon we drove onto Emu Park for a look, we had no idea what to expect but it was just down the road and we didn't want to do much today. Emus seem to be very important around the area, we gather from the signs there are a lot of them in Emu Park. We visited the old jetty and had a look around there, apparently they started the jetty in the 1920's and it was to be built in three parts but it never ever happened. There are a lot of emu sculptures around town with information boards, we only read the one about the jetty and then drove around to see what else there was to see. We came across this beautiful ANZAC memorial and walk, and drove up and down taking photos. We looked for the singing ship which we never found, maybe next time. We drove home from here for lunch and then after doing a few things around the van we wandered back down to Yeppoon in the afternoon for a drink on the alfresco area at Keppel Bay Sailing Club overlooking the water which was very pleasant. We only had one drink and then drove back to the van. We are moving on tomorrow to Mackay, it is a long drive but we will stop on the way for lunch, we have chosen where we are staying so we will drive directly there.
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